I recently found out about a rule where if a marble is 2 spaces away, and the next 3 spaces after it is unoccupied, you can jump 3 spaces? So like your marble is on the board, and there's another one, ...

A few months ago I visited a friend who'd recently taken up playing Agricola with her husband. "We think there should be a bigger handicap for going second," she said, "Otherwise the person who keeps ...

When I play as a runner, I tend to be apprehensive about unrezzed ICE unless I have a breaker of each type and a pile of credits. Naturally, neither of those things are in place early in the game, and ...

Suppose I am declarer, and dummy has a "side" (non-trump) suit with AQx or AQxx, and I have xxx in my hand. I have been told NOT to finesse the Q (a 50-50 chance), except as a last resort, or late in ...

I'm referring to games like Agricola, Puerto Rico, and Settlers of Catan. But a few themes seem to pop up in each game.
One is the importance of brick/stone/wood for building. Without improvements, ...

Most contracts are predicated on the supposition that the defenders will win some tricks. If game can be made with "26 points and eight trumps," this leaves 14 points and five trumps to the defenders ...

Regarding finesses for a missing queen in a key (e.g. trump suit), there is a proverb of "eight ever [always] nine never." Instead, one is supposed to play for a drop. (This, and most other proverbs ...

Apparently it relates to duplicate bridge. Initially, I thought it meant playing the hand in a risky way to score overtricks, and taking the chance of sacrificing a potential game. But then someone ...

I really enjoying playing Alhambra, but I'm a bit worried that my strategy may be overly simplistic. Basically, I play according to the following principles:
Try not to build buildings unless I can ...

When playing Dominion, I have developed the habit of buying a Gold the first time I can afford one, even if I could afford a Province instead. Is this a good rule of thumb?
My reasoning is that if I ...

When I see declarer draw trumps, and then start to "eliminate" (ruff out) one or more plain suits, my biggest fear as a defender is of an end play. That is, the declarer will put me on lead because ...

On defense, there are attitude, suit preference, and count signals. My guess is that the play to the first trick would represent an "attitude" signal for a suit. Beyond that, how do I differentiate ...